Abstract

Nowadays, countries of the European Union are facing a rapid decline in their fertility indicators. This factor, combined with ageing of societies, stimulates a need to redefine the demography, as well as answer key questions regarding the inflow of immigrants. This paper aims to ascertain the influence of various ethnic groups on European demography and the contemporary trends by using a set of economic, social, and financial variables. Utilizing data from OECD and Eurostat reports, as well as case studies of France and the US, the authors proceed to analyze the current demographic tendencies in order to find out whether immigrants and their offspring in France or the US might tend to be much more fertile than the countries' native citizens. This turns out to be a major ethnic difference, which may have a significant impact on the demography of Europe as a whole.

Economic and legal aspects of land turnover in Poland compared to the European marketThis paper discusses the regulation of agricultural land market in Poland compared to the European market in view of the increasing prices of land in Europe. It presents the causes of the increasing prices of land in Europe, including Poland, and certain historical considerations which affect the current relevancy of land in Poland and the reluctance to sell it to foreigners. The author believes that the history of agricultural land market regulation in Poland after 1989 can be divided into three per­iods. The first period starts with the beginnings of the economic transition and liberal, unhampered land turnover. The second dates back to 2003, when new regulations introduced certain restrictions in land turnover and land ownership. The third period is dated from the entry into force the Law of 14 April 2016, which is characterised by strict state intervention on the agricultural land market. It follows the trend of retreating from liberalization, which has recently been more intensified in Cen­tral and Eastern Europe. The article lists economic and legal factors, which restrict the functioning of agricultural land markets in Poland, and compares these regulations to selected other European countries.

Migration to the European Union from African and Asian countries are one of the key issues of the political and economic agenda of the second decade in the 21 st century. This paper studies the proposals concerning tools in the scope of skills, administration and age management, which will grant to newcomers the appropriate incentives needed for action. Erroneous institutions may lead to misguided incentives, rent seeking and migrants chasing unproductive activities, which in turn does not lead to the construction of a market economy. We posit that migration into Europe should be subject to programmes coordinated at the European level. Military action cannot stop the infiltration of millions more, which in turn means that managing the new arrivals should be coordinated at the EU level, and the tools of administration, skills management and age management should be actively used in selecting, including into the labour market and activating the job potential of migrants.